From the Community

With a 2013 NPS Japanese American Confinement Sites grant, the National Japanese American Historical Society in collaboration with the Bay Area Writing Project, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and the Tule Lake Committee used newly accessible primary documents, secondary sources, photographs, oral histories, and artifacts to develop a web-based inquiry curricula for grades 4-12.

In my experience conversation flows freely when paired with food. While I wish I could offer my webinar guests an actual snack, the company and conversation that is bound to occur will be rich and rewarding, I'm sure!

I’ll be honest. I have only played Pokemon Go once or twice, and not even on my own phone. But I will say that its application of technology illustrates a major concept I want to highlight in my workshop Collaborative Writing 2.0: Learning the Moves Writers Can Make. It's that our mobile devices have had GPS and maps for several years now, but in that time, they’ve been used as just that: GPS and maps. The developers of Pokemon Go have given GPS and Maps a new purpose, so that they are a means to a new end, not the end in and of themselves. As school districts everywhere immerse their students in digital platforms, teachers of writing must think creatively about practices that harness the unique features of digital tools to help students grow as writers.

When I began my work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013, I was surprised to find both confusion and concern over teaching with technologies from the millennial preservice teachers I worked with- so-called tech-savvy digital natives. Little coursework and even fewer opportunities in practicum/student teaching placements offered experience planning for or implementing technology in the classroom. Even when I integrated digital writing projects into our methods curriculum, we still faced the challenge of transfer, as preservice teachers needed support diving into the why of designing their own digital writing projects in order to make them manageable and meaningful for their differing classroom contexts. It struck me that these were many of the same challenges facing practicing teachers in the schools I had worked in previously.

I’ve had a couple of crappy days this week, so when it looked like things might be easing last night, I found myself sitting at my desk, itching to make something. Let me be more specific. I found myself craving the experience of being immersed in the process of creating something. Of composing.

As my district moved to a 1:1 environment with Chromebooks for all students in grades 5-12 a few years ago, I couldn’t help but be excited about the possibilities of moving to digital writer’s notebook. Afterall, wouldn’t that be a more authentic, modern writing experience for students? How many of us handwrite a draft of anything these days? For me, the majority of my writing happens digitally, with my drafting, revising, and editing happening concurrently as I type, rather than as discrete steps. For many students, their out of school writing happens this way, too: on social media and in messages to friends. Despite this, I also wondered if some intangible part of the writing process would be lost or if the magic of having such a linear, messy paper notebook would hinder students’ thinking.

The post first appeared on my blog, All Hands on Deck, at the end of August 2016. It emerged as part of a discussion about remix, digital writing, etc., in the #clmooc2016community. Kevin Hodgson and Sheri Edwards responded, beginning a thought-provoking conversation in several digital spaces. Kevin suggested I repost this here.

We met in 2015 at the Chippewa River Writing Project’s Summer Institute. Janet was a returning CRWP Teacher Consultant and Sharon was a Red Cedar Writing Project Teacher Consultant joining the CRWP for the summer. When given the opportunity in the institute to fashion our own inquiry project on writing, we both identified the research process as an area that intrigued us. As teachers we have always loved research — even back to the days of card catalogs, index cards, and microfiche.

Years ago, I went in search of an audience for my students, although at that time I didn't know that was what I was doing. I’d seen enough student writing to know that I wasn’t doing something right. They were smart, interesting and capable of all manner of argument, but I was frustrated by assignments that weren’t helping them put those traits into their writing. I noticed that they were willing to risk suspension by breaking through the district’s internet firewall to reach sites like Myspace and Facebook where they went to write (Write!) about the things they cared about and in ways that reflected their personalities. This was what I was looking for, so I started a website where my students and I could build on the conversations we were having in class, where they would write like they were for those websites. I envisioned a free flowing forum of ideas and enthusiasm, a place for authentic voices like I’d seen in other places, like I’d heard in my classroom....

As an adult, we can see this “change” as clear as night and day because we remember the “before.” There was a time we didn’t all carry our smartphones everywhere. The “before” was a time when every place didn’t have wifi. We remember how Sunday mornings were spent holding onto a crinkly newspaper. Our main inbox was an actual mailbox. Book stores were common. The only choice for programs to watch on TV were the shows scheduled. When having a phone conversation, the only image we had was… the one in our mind.

Research papers often get a bad reputation. But we conduct research all the time in our everyday lives. Whether we want to understand civic issues or make a major life purchase, we need research skills to sift through all the information. Research writing skills students practice in the classroom need to transfer to their lives too. The most powerful opportunities for this kind of academic learning to transfer to lifelong skills happens when students have some degree of choice about the topics and texts they will study, are able to socially construct new meaning from shared experience, and to demonstrate their skills in both writing and through other media.

As I enter my 21st year of teaching at Thurston High School in the South Redford School District, I have seen the change in how my students learn. Students in 2016 are no longer the same passive consumers of information that they were in the mid 1990s. Instead, they have transformed into creators of information they disseminate through blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos and more. In fact, hundreds of hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute. The transformation from consuming to producing created a need for me to change my teaching style in order to encourage student engagement.

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We met in 2015 at the Chippewa River Writing Project’s Summer Institute. Janet was a returning CRWP Teacher Consultant and Sharon was a Red Cedar Writing Project Teacher Consultant joining the CRWP for the summer. When given the opportunity in the institute to fashion our own inquiry project on writing, we both identified the research process as an area that intrigued us. As teachers we have always loved research — even back to the days of card catalogs, index cards, and microfiche.

Years ago, I went in search of an audience for my students, although at that time I didn't know that was what I was doing. I’d seen enough student writing to know that I wasn’t doing something right. They were smart, interesting and capable of all manner of argument, but I was frustrated by assignments that weren’t helping them put those traits into their writing. I noticed that they were willing to risk suspension by breaking through the district’s internet firewall to reach sites like Myspace and Facebook where they went to write (Write!) about the things they cared about and in ways that reflected their personalities. This was what I was looking for, so I started a website where my students and I could build on the conversations we were having in class, where they would write like they were for those websites. I envisioned a free flowing forum of ideas and enthusiasm, a place for authentic voices like I’d seen in other places, like I’d heard in my classroom....

As an adult, we can see this “change” as clear as night and day because we remember the “before.” There was a time we didn’t all carry our smartphones everywhere. The “before” was a time when every place didn’t have wifi. We remember how Sunday mornings were spent holding onto a crinkly newspaper. Our main inbox was an actual mailbox. Book stores were common. The only choice for programs to watch on TV were the shows scheduled. When having a phone conversation, the only image we had was… the one in our mind.

Research papers often get a bad reputation. But we conduct research all the time in our everyday lives. Whether we want to understand civic issues or make a major life purchase, we need research skills to sift through all the information. Research writing skills students practice in the classroom need to transfer to their lives too. The most powerful opportunities for this kind of academic learning to transfer to lifelong skills happens when students have some degree of choice about the topics and texts they will study, are able to socially construct new meaning from shared experience, and to demonstrate their skills in both writing and through other media.

As I enter my 21st year of teaching at Thurston High School in the South Redford School District, I have seen the change in how my students learn. Students in 2016 are no longer the same passive consumers of information that they were in the mid 1990s. Instead, they have transformed into creators of information they disseminate through blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos and more. In fact, hundreds of hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute. The transformation from consuming to producing created a need for me to change my teaching style in order to encourage student engagement.

Yesterday was International Dot Day, and this is the first year I had my students join the millions (6.6 million from 139 countries, in fact) people making circles and dots as a way to nurture a sense of creativity and imagination. The Dot Day idea stems from a picture book by Peter Reynolds, called The Dot. We connected with Peter and his brother, Paul, last school year, and we hope to do so again this year.

It's quite possible this is impossible. I am trying to narrow in on the affordances of what we mean by the phrase "Digital Writing." I may even veer way off track here, and perhaps it is best for all of us just to drop the "digital" once and for all, and just call it .. writing. Although, I, for one, still prefer the word "composing."

As an English teacher, when I say the word literacy to my non-English teaching colleagues, their eyes glaze over. They’re no doubt thinking about reading a textbook and answering questions, and they’re bored by the thought of it. But in today’s world, the definition of literacy has changed. It is no longer acceptable to only teach students what I’ll call classic literacy skills. Of course, these are important, but if we as teachers focus solely on these, we are leaving out a large chunk of literacy skills that are necessary in today’s society, the so-called new literacies. But, what are new literacies? The National Council of Teachers of English (2013) defines 21st Century literacies as the ability to:

So, consider me intrigued ... I just re-discovered the MediaBreaker tool by The Lamp as part of the Letters to the Next President campaign. MediaBreaker is like the old Popcorn Maker (I still miss you, Popcorn!) by Mozilla, in that you can layer media and text on top of video content. In this case, the idea is to make commentary on top of political videos.

There is a sad truth about the way that most students learn to write: They become boring writers. To write with clarity and insight involves struggle (regardless of age). When faced with this challenge, many students are taught to detach from content, to analyze with sterile language, and to develop ideas within a narrow formula.

Structure is helpful, but if not implemented strategically, it can stifle creativity and require students to go through motions rather than investing themselves in creating something. Many of our attempts to help young people develop writing skills actually deter them from the joy and power of developing a unique, insightful writing voice.

For three months in the fall my 12th grade students designed their own learning. Each plan culminated with a project. In the fall I wrote about the fear I felt when I began to step back. There is a lot I learned from this process (and I plan to write more about it in the future.)

Designing learning in this way meant students were able to pursue topics they felt passionate about and many did so by embarking on complex projects. The result is a collection of products that go beyond traditional ideas of school work and instead speak to the abilities of young people to create work that has meaning in the world.

So, I have been having more fun that I have a right to have by making political-themed distorted graphs that have no data correlation whatsoever. I don't even think or consider any numbers when making these. Who cares about data when you have cool graphs in a misinformation campaign!

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It has become increasingly clear that youths' experiences in schools do not match the kinds of experiences they are likely to have once they have completed school. The push to support "21st century" skills stems from this mismatch, and many have advocated for ensuring that young people learn to think about the world not as a simple set of cause-and-effect experiences, but rather as a set of complex systems.

In Reading, Writing, and Rising Up, Linda Christensen writes, "Students need opportunities to think deeply about other people—why they do what they do, why they think what they think. They also need chances to care about each other and the world.” This was how I described the teach in about this unit to my students:

A former student of mine, now in education herself, posed this question on Facebook: "Teacher friends, tomorrow is the day before a vacation [Thanksgiving]. How are you addressing the [Ferguson] grand jury announcement."

This white paper from the Hive NYC talks about why working in the open is relevant to their organization. It further describes what working in the open looks like in practice and talks about the benefits and tensions.

Over the Summer of 2014, we launched a meetup of self-identified Black male educators hosted at The Center for the Study of Race & Equity in Education. What began out of a friendly conversation of our relative scarcity in classrooms transformed into an interdependent approach to move ourselves and others collectively forward in our practice.

"I would spend hours as a young 10-year-old coding my home page to host amateurish and practically useless graphics that I'd made...But hey, no matter how embarrassing it all was, it led me here." 16-year-old Veronica Valenzuela shows us that, with the right mix of mentor/peer support and exploration, even seemingly trivial interests can lead to robust learning opportunities and pathways.

My first introduction to the book, Teaching in the Connected Learning Classroom, was at the 2014 Urban Sites Conference in Chicago. As I made my way through the introduction in a break-out session, I recognized themes that resonated with discussions I have had with teachers about their experiences within the contexts of their classrooms, their ongoing adaptations to digital technologies, and their need to connect with other teachers around these topics.

I consider myself pretty invested in the Connected Learning community – I had the privilege of co-chairing the Civic Education & Youth Serving Organizations strand of the Digital Media and Learning conference in 2013, I contributed to an eBook edited by Antero Garcia focused on the application of Connected Learning principles to the classroom, and I am a Connected Learning Ambassador for the National Writing Project

It’s a maxim that shows up in all kinds of places, from university mottos to Oprah’s Life Class. Its meanings are often hazy and applications varied, but my religious Southern parents will be pleased to know that I remember its origins are biblical in nature, a derivation of John 8:32, a verse that links discipleship to spiritual freedom.

These days, though, like my own evolution toward humanism, the phrase has become well situated in more secular usage, having become common parlance, not only among theologians, but artists, therapists, and politicians as well.

If you read last week's entry, you know that I decided to take on a new risk in my AP Literature classes last Monday: integrating Twitter into my classroom discussion (specifically the student-led discussion known as a Socratic Seminar).

Let me just start by saying that this was not perfect, but it was better than I...

Taking risks has never felt like a natural part of my personality. I don't typically blaze my own trail. I look for the safe, the comfortable, the experiences I can control.

This is as true in my professional life as my personal. However, this risk-averse tendency is often in conflict with another aspect of my character: the desire to improve myself—to improve my craft. This desire manifests in my classroom with my career-long need to create new units and lessons (or, at the very least, to repeatedly revise old ones). One of the greatest challenges and joys of teaching is that no lesson or unit ever feels like it's done. There is always room for improvement. I have come to believe this is how it should be—that this constant cycle of creation and revision is actually the hallmark of any teacher who is experiencing moments of greatness.

Last year, 15 million students tried the Hour of Code in one week! It was everywhere—from the Google homepage to the White House to classrooms all across the world. It’s happening again this year during Computer Science Education Week, December 8–14. This webinar includes an update of what to expect this year and how to bring the movement to your students this December.

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About the National Writing Project

The National Writing Project focuses the knowledge, expertise, and leadership of our nation's educators on sustained efforts to improve writing and learning for all learners. The NWP envisions a future where every person is an accomplished writer, engaged learner, and active participant in a digital, interconnected world.